Making The Downtime Count

As A Little Girl, I Remember Watching TV And Seeing The Newscasters Speak So Well.
I Remember Seeing Movies And Watching The Actors Communicate With So Much Ease, Fluency, Grace, And Charm.
I Knew It Then That I Wanted To Be That Person.
Not An Actor.
But Someone Who Embodies Intelligence, Creativity, Kindness, Grace, Warmth And Charm.
So Yes, I Became Deliberate From Childhood.
I Studied Social And Emotional Intelligence Before I Even Came Across The Words.
I Just Knew I Was My Own Work Of Art And It Had To Turn Out Beautiful.
It Had To Make People Look And Ask “How Did You Become This Way? Could I Be This Way Too?”
I Paid Attention To My English.
I Studied The Dictionary Repeatedly.
I Watched All The TEDx Talks I Could Find On YouTube.
I Watched ALL The Toastmasters International Championship Winning Speeches At Least Thrice!
I Mean ALL!
I Would Stay Up All Night Downloading Videos With The China Tecno Phone My Daddy Bought Me.
I Would Do Night Subscription And Fall Asleep Downloading Videos That Took Hours, Wake Up And Continue Watching Over The Downloads.
In The Years After School, I Was Without Admission For Six Years.
I Eventually Believed I Was Probably Too Dumb To Get Into School, But Guess What?
Those Six Years Were The Best Years I Had.
I Built Myself, Brick By Brick, Stone Upon Stone, Layer By Layer.
My Mom Would Come Into My Room And Find Me Immersed In Tapes And Taking Notes In Huge Journals.
Sometimes Immersed In Prayer And Meditation.
I Soaked Myself In Learning.
I Dedicated My Time To Writing. In The Same Period, I Had Registered For A Public Speaking Class And Every Week, I Would Attend Classes.
I Bothered My Aunt Till She Paid For A Stock Market Masterclass For Me.
I Volunteered For All Those Years.
I Found Mentors And Some Found Me.
I Found Spoken Word And Begged For Stages To Share My Poetry.
I Was Growing.
Yet I Didn’t Feel Like It.
Because “My Mates” Had Gotten Admission.
Had Finished School.
Had Gone For NYSC.
Had Started Working.
I Was Really Hurt And Felt Robbed.
All I Had Was The Project Called Me.
And I Built That Project Devotedly.
I Would Go Scavenging In My Friend’s House For Journals, Magazines And Informative Books And Would Sit For Hours Absorbing The Compilation Of Information From Science, Arts, Medicine, Technology, History.
I Read About The Aztecs, The Romans, The Red Indians, The Founding Fathers Of America, The Amazon Rainforest, The Story Of Napoleon The Great, Troy, Name It.
Everything My Eyes Could Find, I Read.
So When You Listen To My Poetry And Hear Me Talk About Chromatography, Relativity, Luxury Goods, Figure Four Leg Lock In Wrestling, Mummification, The Ice Caps, Amina Of Zaria, Whatever, – It’s Those Years.
I Wrote My Poem, Beauty Lies, In 2018.
I Wrote The Master Weaver, 2019.
That Was My Richest Learning Curve.
Who Did I Not Read?
Myles Munroe, Ben Carson, Homer’s Iliad, Napoleon Hill, Joyce Meyer, Name It.
2013 – 2019.
Oh. I Grew So Much.
What I Am Today Is What I Built 10 Years Ago.
What I’ll Be 10 Years From Now Is What I’m Building Now.
Phew!
What I’m Saying Is, Your Disappointment Phase Could Be Your Greatest Learning Advantage If You See If For What It Is.
Now, I’m Grateful Life Gave Me The Stay-at-home Choice Even Though My Admission Was The Opportunity Cost.
You’ll Be Okay.
Just Make Sure You Make The Phase Count. You Can’t Lose On Both Ends.
Make The Phase Count.
Yours Always,
The Talk Queen,
Neeta Rare